Silver Linings Playbook

Excuse us for a moment, but… OMG OMG OMG JENNIFER LAWRENCE JUST WON AN OSCAR!!1!11! SHE IS OUR KATNISS EVERDEEN AND SHE IS SUPER TALENTED AND NOW SHE IS AN ACADEMY AWARD WINNER!!!!1!1! HOLY FUCKBALLS,THAT. JUST. HAPPENED!!!!

And looked FABULOUS doing it!

*cough* We mean, not that we’re that surprised. We explained our high hopes after seeing Silver Linings Playbook and her steady string of wins beforehand, but nothing is guaranteed until it happens and IT DID. If ever you stumble across this in an alternate universe where you find yourself on Hunger Games humor blogs: CONGRATULATIONS, JENNIFER!

Also, before the fandom snobs come out to say “So what? She didn’t win for The Hunger Games. Why is the fandom making a big deal out of it?” Just leave the party (aka this blog) NOW. You are uninvited, because you clearly don’tgetit, man! Jennifer is the core of the films and we support her in all her endeavors because she’s whip smart, grounded, and doing all she can to make great films… We even forgive her for House at the End of the Street!

But before the Oscar was even won, fans were all a-Twitter about what could happen if she did…

DUN DUN DUUNNNNNN! THE DREADED OSCAR CURSE!

Yes, the curse in which talented actors win an Academy Award and then go on to take a professional cliff dive into ridiculously bad film choices that make audiences wince, with the occasional decent but not-very-worthwhile role thrown in there. Halle Berry, Marisa Tomei, Adrien Brody, and Cuba Gooding Jr. are popular examples of the phenomenon at work. Will Jennifer Lawrence be next?

STILL BETTER THAN YOU.

To help riddle this out, we’ve created a list of what could happen to Jen’s career:1.Catching Fire, Mockingjay: Part 1, and Mockingjay: Part 2 could all bomb critically despite intense popularity, thus truly making it the next Twilight.2. Beloved Hollywood directing icon in the making, David O. Russell, could turn Jennifer’s other upcoming films, The Ends of the Earth and an untitled Abscam film, into utter disasters.3. After receiving almost every script she qualifies for a role in, she picks all the most tired, oldest concepts and roles that she can easily phone in.4. She quits acting to pursue a career in crab fishing or cattle ranching, never to be seen in Hollywood again.5. She makes her upcoming films. They are released and most likely get good receptions from both audiences and critics. She makes more movies, some of which probably miss the mark, but she tries to make smart film choices and acts the hell out of them either way. She gets plenty more opportunity for recognition over the next several years.

We might be straight up craaaaaaazy, but we’re gonna go with #5!

For every “Oscar curse” recipient, there are others who have won in multiple occasions or even been well-received throughout their careers without a slew of extra nominations. Daniel Day-Lewis won his third Lead Actor award tonight and it’s not coincidence– the man has talent and he took on challenging, risky roles that paid off over the course of a long career. He’s astounding but he’s not superhuman, so why should we expect other winners like Jennifer to fail?

We Trip Every Day! Talk About Us Instead, Media!The Girl With The Pearl

The Oscars are just hours away now, and as Jennifer Lawrence is up for Best Actress for a second time, I’ve just gotta cross my fingers for her. I’ve been rooting for Jennifer and the film itself since I first saw it last November (I’ve seen it at least 4 times since, the latest was a trip to the movies last night), and a lot has happened since then.

Silver Linings Playbook and Jennifer have since achieved several awards and nominations, Jennifer having most recently won an Independent Spirit Award. Jennifer has also won a Golden Globe, which the acceptance speech for it got her some negative attention from people who didn’t get the joke (still judging you if you took that seriously, just saying), and she appeared on Saturday Night Live to mixed reviews. Toss in bouts of the flu and pneumonia and more Catching Fire filming, and it’s evident it’s been a crazy couple of months for her.

I’ve seen several of the Oscar movies since and have felt that Jennifer’s performance still wins it for me. Do the Oscar voters agree with me? We’ll see Sunday night. And remember, it’s okay if she doesn’t win. Seriously, no need to be sore if it isn’t Jennifer who wins. I mean, we don’t want to see anyone bad-mouthing a 9 year old for winning. I know it’s cliche, but it really is an honor just to be nominated. And remember to ignore those pesky catfight rumors. But hey, we’ve still got high hopes.

Jennifer Lawrence is a winner, literally. Two days in a row she’s won in several of the categories she was nominated in at two different award shows (People’s Choice, and Critics’ Choice), and things are only looking like the trend is going to continue for her. This weekend is the Golden Globe Awards, and our dear Jen is nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for Silver Linings Playbook– and the nomination is wholly deserved, as is the plethora of awards she’s collecting, and will probably end up displaying in her bathroom. Like I said above, the trend is continuing, ’cause this morning she was nominated for her second Oscar. Just think on that for a second, she’s 22 years-old, and she already has two Academy Award nominations under her belt, not even Meryl Streep can boast two Academy Award nominations by the time she was 22, and she’s considered one of the best actresses in history. Although, Meryl was attending Yale graduate school when she was 22– oops.

Awards are nice, nominations are nice too, but you know what’s the best part, at least for us selfish Hunger Games fans? The fact that the star of our favorite book to film adaptation is critically acclaimed, and a prestigious awards nominee twice over, which puts the franchise on a completely different level from others that are grouped into the same YA category. Yeah, safe to say we’re more than proud of our leading lady, and equally proud of the talented and award-winning/ nominated supporting cast members. This morning wasn’t just good for Jen either, nope– Philip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a drama for The Master. I realize that The Master isn’t exactly the kind of film that a so-called typical Hunger Games fan would have ventured out to see, but I did– and yes, the Academy got it right, they also got it right when they nominated Joaquin Phoenix for the same film, but for Best Actor. I kid you not, watching Joaquin was like watching Christian Bale in The Fighter, a succession of mentally saying “is that really Christian Bale!?” But in this case it was “is that really Joaquin!?” The Master is a great film, please go see it. I’m all for great films, and Hoffman’s in it!

Silver Linings Playbook and The Master seem to be almost rivals where it comes to nominations in acting, because The Master is only missing a nomination for Best Actress, whereas Silver Linings Playbook can boast acting nominations in all categories, which is historical to put it lightly. Through all this hoopla, and craziness though, Jennifer only seems to be becoming more and more comfortable with her self– which is why we like her so much.

And, maybe also for the fact that she can motorboat and/or headbutt her co-star, and friend, in the chest after winning a People’s Choice Award, and we don’t judge her for it– in fact we embrace her for it, and kind of like her more. I need to stop saying more.

As predicted, awards season nominations have been very good to Jennifer Lawrence and her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. Deservedly so, seeing as fans and critics alike have raved about her intelligent take on Tiffany, an unpredictable widower who joins forces with Bradley Cooper’s character to overcome their fears and illnesses together.

There’s just one thing that has got us worried: The Golden Globes has made the dubious decision to list Silver Linings Playbook as a comedy, thus pinning both Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley’s Coopers performances in the “Comedy or Musical” category.

… But things are dramatic!

Silver Linings Playbook is the type of movie known as a dramedy, in which the story has dark, dramatic undertones but, since the characters in the film are doing everything they can NOT to drown in their own sorrows, there are moments of comedic lightness. It’s a hard film to categorize, but we really, really wish it had gone into the opposite category. Here’s the catch: The Golden Globes, while not directly affiliated with the Academy Awards, is a major precursor to Oscar night. And when Oscar narrows things down into neat little categories like “Best Actress”, it’s the comedic nominees that usually lose their place in the lineup because they’re not taken quite so seriously. (Recently, this is not true of musical side of the category, nor do we think Les Miserables will be shunned, because it’s freaking LESMIZ.)

We’re pretty confident that Jennifer’s amazing performance will be recognized enough to survive the category subsidization shuffle, Hollywood is a bureaucratic beast. It’s hard to imagine why the Hollywood Foreign Press Association would pin her performance as comedic when there was so much pain and depth in her character, even during many of the times she made you laugh. Was there just too many actors or actresses they wanted to include in the dramatic category, so tossing Silver Linings Playbook into comedy worked for everyone? Only time will tell.

Black Friday this year meant getting a great deal on a TV for myself and taking a trip down to my local AMC to watch Silver Linings Playbook. You don’t understand, guys. I’ve been waiting for this movie since those pap shots of her filming the jogging scenes a year ago that led to me IMDb-ing the movie to find out that she’s playing a character with my name*. As a Tiffany, you don’t really get many great onscreen namesakes. For some reason, the name is usually a punchline for a joke about a ditzy girl, never an actual main character with substance.

And all the Oscar buzz surrounding Jennifer Lawrence and her portrayal of Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook has got me even more excited. She’s already an Academy Award nominee for her role as Rhee in Winter’s Bone, and though nominations don’t get announced until January, it seems like all anyone can talk about for the Best Actress category is Jennifer. And let’s not forget the Golden Globe and SAG awards, nominations for which will be announced in a couple weeks.

If Jennifer wins a major award for Silver Linings Playbook, pre-Catching Fire release, it can mean even more attention and credibility to the film and to the rest of the franchise. Hunger Games fans already like stressing they’ve got an Oscar nominee heading their series, what’s it going to mean if she becomes an Oscar winner? While it’s still beyond me that the teen franchise stigma still plagues us even after the release of The Hunger Games, anything to chip away at it and give more cred to the series is welcome in my book.

Do I think she deserves it? The thing that impressed me the most about Jennifer’s portrayal of Tiffany is while Jennifer seems drawn to female characters with a lot of depth (yes, please Hollywood give us more of those!), she was still a unique character. While the media wants to pin Jennifer as being the “strong female” actress, when you look at it, they’re not all cookie cut-outs of the same role.

So here’s to hoping that the enigma that is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gets it, and let’s all cross our fingers for Jennifer.

Jennifer Lawrence is our Katniss Everdeen. She’s given us a great portrayal of our favorite heroine and because of that, most of us would love her unconditionally no matter what she was like in real life.

Lucky for us, Jennifer has one of the best personalities in Hollywood. She’s sweet and lighthearted and… oh yeah, HILARIOUS.

She has provided us with some real gems while at the Toronto International Film Festival (where she apparently met Kristen Stewart, which is somehow important to everyone who won’tshutup about it) promoting The Silver Linings Playbook. Therefore, this is a dedication post to her hilarity!

“I’m sexy! I’m cute! I’m popular to boot!” – NOT said by Jennifer Lawrence.

Jennifer Lawrence’s Quotes of Awesome

On getting roles:“I started sleeping with all the directors. I slept with 98 percent of them.”

On playing a dancer:“That’s a sad thing to watch. I’m an awful dancer. I was stress-eating.”

Mid-interview:“Oh my god, this dress has pockets! …Sorry.”

On her style:“I hire professionals. Then I sit there and talk and all of the sudden, I look like this!”

On the Mockingjay split:“We have enough time, we have enough room to really tell this story to the fullest, and we don’t need to cut anything. So that’s my artistic answer. It’s a very diplomatic answer. But what I’m really thinking is yacht, yacht. My own island.“

Bradley Cooper:“I’m bummed that Wes Bently got killed. He was awesome.”Josh Horowitz:“He might still be alive. We don’t see it…”Bradley Cooper:“No, he ate those berries. The door was locked!”Jennifer:“It’s kind of like a Tupac situation.”

And this is just the past week!

Jennifer Lawrence, thank you for bringing the funny! A woman of your success and popularity tends to be too afraid of the media to have a real personality. We applaud you on so many levels and want to assure you that, as individuals who mildly stalk you, we think you possess ALL THE WIN.

The Hunger Games is madness, but an actor’s gotta work outside their franchise as much as possible if they want to avoid typecasting. We know it’s insane to think these actors have lives that do not revolve around The Hunger Games, but there’s proof! Two new trailers from projects by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson

First off, there’s part one of the Jennifer Lawrence / Bradley Cooper superduo films, Silver Linings Playbook(part two being Serena, which just finished filming recently):

Bradley Cooper plays Pat, a man whose come home fresh from a four-year stay at a mental institution, trying to regain his old life. Along the way he rekindles a friendship with Jennifer Lawrence’s character, Tiffany (how weird does that one feel, Twiffidy?!), who has become a bit of a basketcase since the death of her husband.

This movie hits us right in our sentimental bone (we imagine that’s right near our funny bone) and gets us all gooey. Plus, Jennifer seems as tormented and humorous and real as ever, and we just love watching her act. Really, we cannot wait to see it.

Then there’s the trailer for Epic, an animated film starring Josh Hutcherson that kind of cheated by releasing a trailer a year before the film is hitting theaters:

You can tell that 90% of the voiceover work hasn’t been completed yet, given that the trailer is mostly imagery you’d see at the start or end of a scene with music playing over it. There’s only a few lines at the end that tell us some work has been done (and not necessarily by Josh– his character only yells and grunts and frankly, they could have had anyone do that.)

Josh voices Nod, an adventurous young member of a secret race of tiny woodland dwellers that protect nature from its enemies. When a teenage girl is magically transported into their world, she becomes a leader in the fight to save their world.

All and all, we love animated childrens’ films way more than the average adult should, so we’re looking forward to this one. It seems a little FernGully-ish to us, minus the rainforest and plus an actual forest, but we’ll take it. We just hope that the title, along with the addition of uber recognizable voices that will pull us out of the moment like Beyonce and Steven Tyler, won’t totally jinx the project.

Last but certainly not least in the eyes of the action-lovers of the world is The Expendables 2, which stars Liam Hemsworth along with pretty much every action hero that’s still breathing:

You may roll your eyes at this one, we probably will too, but there’s an audience for this. It’s straight up action with a bit of plot here and there, but people eat. it. up. Otherwise Jason Statham’s career would have ended shortly after Snatch.

Liam plays Bill ‘The Kid’ Timmons, who we don’t know anything about except that a) he’s a sharpshooter, b) the character was in the first movie but got cut in editing, and c) when we hear “The Kid”, we now think of Alex Pettyfer’s character in Magic Mike and that’s kind of pathetic, but also quite amusing.